Tuesday, December 31, 2019

My 2020 Resolution: Going Within and Listening

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, by which I may be financially compensated. See Disclosures for more info. 


Greetings, all, and Happy Holidays! I hope you have been having a wonderful holiday season. 


Photo by Monika Grabkowska on Unsplash
We have had a nice set of holidays here at Chez Bee. Both Thanksgiving and Christmas were simple and lovely. My husband and I took time to cook together (though he treated me by doing most of the cooking on Christmas day; I was sous chef), and I've been rediscovering how much I enjoy baking. 

Since we downsized into this smaller house many years ago, I really haven't been doing that much baking due to our small and, frankly, terrible oven. We have one of those apartment-sized stoves (it came with the place), and we haven't replaced it yet. It doesn't bake evenly, and it doesn't have a light, and I'd just kind of lost my enthusiasm for baking. 

But then I discovered just how good my toaster oven is. Indeed, the manual gives instructions for baking several mainstay items, so I ordered bakeware made for a toaster oven and have been having a wonderful time rediscovering this hobby. I've even branched out to make things I've never made before. On today's agenda: these traditional Hungarian cookies. It feels good to get back into it!

Anyway, those are the life updates, but there's one more thing I want to raise as we go into 2020.

Being on the cusp of a new year, it's typical to make resolutions, such as to lose weight, get a new job, buy a house, etc.

If you've been reading for any length of time, you know that I am a very goal-oriented person, myself. We've talked about how to reach our goals here on positively b.e.e. quite a few times, and usually, the topic is more of a how-to nature, whether it's making action plans or writing mission statements or signing up for classes or changing mindset or what have you.

But this year I am going to take another tack when reaching for goals. 

This year, my resolution is to get to know myself better by going within rather than using external factors. This may sound a little odd, but bear with me.

I've noticed I'm craving more silence. I'm not on social media as much. I'm reading more in my spare time. Sometimes I work on my hand crafts and don't have anything to accompany that task: no TV; no music; no audiobook—nothing.

This has been a bit of an eye-opener. How?

At first, the silence was nearly deafening. I noticed the noise in my head and all the things I tell myself.

Rather than tamp it down, I just let that play out for a bit so I could learn from it.

After learning from my internal speech, I then focused on my breathing and allowed pure intention to take the place of the noise.

This was so enlightening! The level of focus I have had these last few weeks has been amazing!

Anyway, the point of me sharing all of this is to encourage you to try the silent approach if you like when you set your resolutions this year. Turn off the TV, radio, music, whatever. Get off of social media and your news feed.

Do something you enjoy in total silence.

  • Listen to the noise—what are you telling yourself? How can you learn from it?
  • Are you willing to let it go? Is it even yours?
  • B R E A T H E
  • Think about an intention that you can replace the internal monologue with
  • Keep breathing and focus that intent
  • How does that make you feel? What is the outcome?

Grab your journal and write any insights down! For me, a major insight was that half of the stuff replaying in my head wasn't even mine! It was my mind turning over things I'd read, things that upset me from the news or internet arguments, or thinking about scenes from movies or shows I'd watched, and then some of it was my own insecurities or worries. Once I was able to identify all of that, I was able to deal with it and focus.

I'll be curious to hear what your resolutions are and what approaches work for you. Maybe this approach doesn't work for you, but something else does. Drop me a line in the comments below and share what works, what doesn't, and what the outcome is!

In the meantime, I'd like to wish you all a wonderful winter, a Happy New Year, and the all the joy of discovery that awaits. 

Here's to an amazing 2020! 


💛🐝






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Reflections on 2020

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, by which I may be financially compensated. See  Disclosures  for more info.  It’s finally...